This chapter examines the reasons why winner’s curse is endemic in contemporary business, whether in the US or globally. Many important business decisions have the potential to encounter the winner’s ...
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This chapter examines the reasons why winner’s curse is endemic in contemporary business, whether in the US or globally. Many important business decisions have the potential to encounter the winner’s curse, but not all of them do. It is argued that certain conditions play a role in a manager’s (especially senior manager’s) susceptibility to the curse. These specific behaviors and expectations are outlined.Less

Winning is not everything

G. AnandalingamHenry C. Lucas

Published in print: 2004-11-18

This chapter examines the reasons why winner’s curse is endemic in contemporary business, whether in the US or globally. Many important business decisions have the potential to encounter the winner’s curse, but not all of them do. It is argued that certain conditions play a role in a manager’s (especially senior manager’s) susceptibility to the curse. These specific behaviors and expectations are outlined.

‘Where do musical or colour traits get primarily instantiated, directly in the physical world or merely within the realms of our own subjectivity?’ This chapter surveys how popular resolutions of ...
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‘Where do musical or colour traits get primarily instantiated, directly in the physical world or merely within the realms of our own subjectivity?’ This chapter surveys how popular resolutions of this traditional philosophical question sometimes affect real life practical decisions in unfortunate ways. Several cases involving musical preservation are provided to illustrate this theme.Less

LOST CHORDS

Mark Wilson

Published in print: 2006-01-05

‘Where do musical or colour traits get primarily instantiated, directly in the physical world or merely within the realms of our own subjectivity?’ This chapter surveys how popular resolutions of this traditional philosophical question sometimes affect real life practical decisions in unfortunate ways. Several cases involving musical preservation are provided to illustrate this theme.

The Malleus Maleficarum is one of the best-known treatises dealing with the problem of what to do with witches. Written in 1487 by a Dominican inquisitor, Heinrich Institoris, following his failure ...
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The Malleus Maleficarum is one of the best-known treatises dealing with the problem of what to do with witches. Written in 1487 by a Dominican inquisitor, Heinrich Institoris, following his failure to prosecute a number of women for witchcraft, it is in many ways a highly personal document, full of frustration at official complacency in the face of a spiritual threat, as well as being a practical guide for law-officers who have to deal with a cunning, dangerous enemy. Combining theological discussion, illustrative anecdotes and useful advice for those involved in suppressing witchcraft, the treatise's influence on witchcraft studies has been extensive. The only previous translation into English, that by Montague Summers in 1928, is full of inaccuracies. It is written in a style almost unreadable nowadays, and is unfortunately coloured by Institoris's personal agenda. This new edited translation, with an introductory essay setting witchcraft, Institoris and the Malleus into clear English, corrects Summers' mistakes and offers an unvarnished version of what Institoris actually wrote. It will undoubtedly become the standard translation of this controversial late medieval text.Less

The Malleus Maleficarum and the construction of witchcraft

Heinrich Institoris

Published in print: 2003-11-13

The Malleus Maleficarum is one of the best-known treatises dealing with the problem of what to do with witches. Written in 1487 by a Dominican inquisitor, Heinrich Institoris, following his failure to prosecute a number of women for witchcraft, it is in many ways a highly personal document, full of frustration at official complacency in the face of a spiritual threat, as well as being a practical guide for law-officers who have to deal with a cunning, dangerous enemy. Combining theological discussion, illustrative anecdotes and useful advice for those involved in suppressing witchcraft, the treatise's influence on witchcraft studies has been extensive. The only previous translation into English, that by Montague Summers in 1928, is full of inaccuracies. It is written in a style almost unreadable nowadays, and is unfortunately coloured by Institoris's personal agenda. This new edited translation, with an introductory essay setting witchcraft, Institoris and the Malleus into clear English, corrects Summers' mistakes and offers an unvarnished version of what Institoris actually wrote. It will undoubtedly become the standard translation of this controversial late medieval text.

This chapter considers the relationship between the reflective life and morality to show that the good life from a person's point of view gives an appropriate place to moral concerns. It argues that ...
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This chapter considers the relationship between the reflective life and morality to show that the good life from a person's point of view gives an appropriate place to moral concerns. It argues that a person's reflective conception of a well-lived life provides an overarching standard that can help to adjudicate conflicts (taking the conflict between moral and non-moral commitments as an example), at least in principle. But the picture is complicated by the fact that a reflective conception of a well-lived life does not have enough detail to provide a commensurating standard or super-value. The details of this picture and some possible problems and objections to the account are explored.Less

Morality and the Reflective Life

Valerie Tiberius

Published in print: 2008-04-03

This chapter considers the relationship between the reflective life and morality to show that the good life from a person's point of view gives an appropriate place to moral concerns. It argues that a person's reflective conception of a well-lived life provides an overarching standard that can help to adjudicate conflicts (taking the conflict between moral and non-moral commitments as an example), at least in principle. But the picture is complicated by the fact that a reflective conception of a well-lived life does not have enough detail to provide a commensurating standard or super-value. The details of this picture and some possible problems and objections to the account are explored.

The world has become increasingly separated into the haves and have nots. This book shows how a contented class—not the privileged few but the socially and economically advantaged majority—defend ...
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The world has become increasingly separated into the haves and have nots. This book shows how a contented class—not the privileged few but the socially and economically advantaged majority—defend their comfortable status at a cost. Middle-class voting against regulation and increased taxation that would remedy pressing social ills has created a culture of immediate gratification, leading to complacency and hampering long-term progress. Only economic disaster, military action, or the eruption of an angry underclass seem capable of changing the status quo. A groundbreaking critique, the book shows how the complacent majority captures the political process and determines economic policy.Less

The Culture of Contentment

John Kenneth Galbraith

Published in print: 2017-08-29

The world has become increasingly separated into the haves and have nots. This book shows how a contented class—not the privileged few but the socially and economically advantaged majority—defend their comfortable status at a cost. Middle-class voting against regulation and increased taxation that would remedy pressing social ills has created a culture of immediate gratification, leading to complacency and hampering long-term progress. Only economic disaster, military action, or the eruption of an angry underclass seem capable of changing the status quo. A groundbreaking critique, the book shows how the complacent majority captures the political process and determines economic policy.

This chapter is concerned with the growing success of both Mansfield and Murry. It shows how Mansfield's critical practice parallels Murry's in their mutual concern about the change in consciousness ...
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This chapter is concerned with the growing success of both Mansfield and Murry. It shows how Mansfield's critical practice parallels Murry's in their mutual concern about the change in consciousness brought about by the Great War, and their disdain for post-war complacency and hypocrisy. Their cautious reaction to modernist innovations is considered in connection with a general progression of their thought towards a consolidation of modernist principles instead of an automatic reaction against traditional literary conventions. The chapter discusses their critiques of literary impressionism, their interest in the concept of impersonality, and their further interactions with Virginia Woolf and T. S. Eliot. Mansfield's tuberculosis continues to affect her marriage to Murry, and she interprets this dilemma in her story, ‘The Man Without a Temperament.’Less

‘The Coming Man and Woman’

Sydney Janet Kaplan

Published in print: 2010-10-05

This chapter is concerned with the growing success of both Mansfield and Murry. It shows how Mansfield's critical practice parallels Murry's in their mutual concern about the change in consciousness brought about by the Great War, and their disdain for post-war complacency and hypocrisy. Their cautious reaction to modernist innovations is considered in connection with a general progression of their thought towards a consolidation of modernist principles instead of an automatic reaction against traditional literary conventions. The chapter discusses their critiques of literary impressionism, their interest in the concept of impersonality, and their further interactions with Virginia Woolf and T. S. Eliot. Mansfield's tuberculosis continues to affect her marriage to Murry, and she interprets this dilemma in her story, ‘The Man Without a Temperament.’

This chapter explores the potential beneficial effects of good nutrition on a person's behaviour and well-being. The opening section recounts anthropological studies establishing the link between ...
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This chapter explores the potential beneficial effects of good nutrition on a person's behaviour and well-being. The opening section recounts anthropological studies establishing the link between nutrition and the evolution of the human brain. The differences between the diet of our ancestors and modern-day food are identified, coupled with developments in food production and acquisition leading to issues such as dietary complacency and food inequality. A combination of these factors has been linked to specific health risks. Dietary standards have traditionally been geared towards health issues excluding behavioural well-being, and a section is devoted to assessing its impact on brain function and activity. The detrimental effect of changes in the modern diet on a person's behavioural well-being is tackled, beginning with references to psychological disorders such as depression and schizophrenia, to childhood developmental disorders, and even anti-social behaviour. The chapter concludes with the global implications of nutrition on well-being.Less

⋆ The potential of nutrition to promote physical and behavioural well-being

Bernard Gesch

Published in print: 2005-11-03

This chapter explores the potential beneficial effects of good nutrition on a person's behaviour and well-being. The opening section recounts anthropological studies establishing the link between nutrition and the evolution of the human brain. The differences between the diet of our ancestors and modern-day food are identified, coupled with developments in food production and acquisition leading to issues such as dietary complacency and food inequality. A combination of these factors has been linked to specific health risks. Dietary standards have traditionally been geared towards health issues excluding behavioural well-being, and a section is devoted to assessing its impact on brain function and activity. The detrimental effect of changes in the modern diet on a person's behavioural well-being is tackled, beginning with references to psychological disorders such as depression and schizophrenia, to childhood developmental disorders, and even anti-social behaviour. The chapter concludes with the global implications of nutrition on well-being.

This chapter introduces the three key arguments of the book. It examines the shadowy world of debt, its technicality, and opacity. The world of debt is revealed as highly susceptible to practices of ...
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This chapter introduces the three key arguments of the book. It examines the shadowy world of debt, its technicality, and opacity. The world of debt is revealed as highly susceptible to practices of gimmickry, concealment, and mendacity and as a source of serious threats to political legitimacy. The chapter examines the roots of the pervasive illusion, hubris, and complacency in thinking about debt. It also draws out the complex moral challenges that debt management poses, in particular the problematic nature of a moralizing discourse of ‘saints’ and ‘sinners’ and the narrowing of intellectual horizons that has been associated with the colonization of debate by formal macroeconomics. Finally, the chapter introduces key historical patterns in creditor-debtor state relations, including the formalization of creditor-debtor state relations since the twentieth century, persisting collective-action problems, and the transience of power.Less

Prologue : The Perils of Sleepwalking

Kenneth Dyson

Published in print: 2014-06-19

This chapter introduces the three key arguments of the book. It examines the shadowy world of debt, its technicality, and opacity. The world of debt is revealed as highly susceptible to practices of gimmickry, concealment, and mendacity and as a source of serious threats to political legitimacy. The chapter examines the roots of the pervasive illusion, hubris, and complacency in thinking about debt. It also draws out the complex moral challenges that debt management poses, in particular the problematic nature of a moralizing discourse of ‘saints’ and ‘sinners’ and the narrowing of intellectual horizons that has been associated with the colonization of debate by formal macroeconomics. Finally, the chapter introduces key historical patterns in creditor-debtor state relations, including the formalization of creditor-debtor state relations since the twentieth century, persisting collective-action problems, and the transience of power.

This chapter investigates Blair’s acceptance, in 2006, of what had become a notice to quit as Leader. In explaining what forced this position, attention is often primarily focused on Brown and a ...
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This chapter investigates Blair’s acceptance, in 2006, of what had become a notice to quit as Leader. In explaining what forced this position, attention is often primarily focused on Brown and a Brownite ‘coup’ but argued here is that detailed attention should be focused on Blair and his management. The evidence uncovered indicates that in the PLP and on the NEC management had become divided and consequently the rolling managerial coup failed to roll further. There was a new atmosphere of non-cooperation. An impression gained ground that the Leader, who had refused to commit himself to a date of departure, did not feel a duty of care towards the party and his word was not to be trusted. Yet managerial complacency was encouraged by confidence in the continuing insulation of the nominating procedure for Leadership elections. There was a remarkable inability of otherwise resourceful supportive managers to anticipate an outside-the-rules initiative of a section of the PLP. When it happened it exposed Blair’s diminished support and forced his public acceptance.Less

Managing for legacy

Lewis Minkin

Published in print: 2014-04-30

This chapter investigates Blair’s acceptance, in 2006, of what had become a notice to quit as Leader. In explaining what forced this position, attention is often primarily focused on Brown and a Brownite ‘coup’ but argued here is that detailed attention should be focused on Blair and his management. The evidence uncovered indicates that in the PLP and on the NEC management had become divided and consequently the rolling managerial coup failed to roll further. There was a new atmosphere of non-cooperation. An impression gained ground that the Leader, who had refused to commit himself to a date of departure, did not feel a duty of care towards the party and his word was not to be trusted. Yet managerial complacency was encouraged by confidence in the continuing insulation of the nominating procedure for Leadership elections. There was a remarkable inability of otherwise resourceful supportive managers to anticipate an outside-the-rules initiative of a section of the PLP. When it happened it exposed Blair’s diminished support and forced his public acceptance.

As robots leave the lab and are deployed in hospital or other healthcare settings, the community of users may become overreliant on and overtrust such technology. Thus, there is a pressing need to ...
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As robots leave the lab and are deployed in hospital or other healthcare settings, the community of users may become overreliant on and overtrust such technology. Thus, there is a pressing need to examine the tendency to overtrust and develop strategies to mitigate the risk to children, parents, and healthcare providers that could occur due to an overreliance on pediatric robotics. To overcome this challenge, we seek to consider the broad range of ethical issues related to the use of robots in pediatric healthcare. This chapter provides an overview of the current state of the art in pediatric robotics, describes relevant ethical issues, and examines the role that overtrust plays in these scenarios. We conclude with suggested strategies to mitigate the relevant risks and describe a framework for the future deployment of robots in the pediatric domain.Less

Pediatric Robotics and Ethics : The Robot Is Ready to See You Now, but Should It Be Trusted?

Jason BorensteinAyanna HowardAlan R. Wagner

Published in print: 2017-11-30

As robots leave the lab and are deployed in hospital or other healthcare settings, the community of users may become overreliant on and overtrust such technology. Thus, there is a pressing need to examine the tendency to overtrust and develop strategies to mitigate the risk to children, parents, and healthcare providers that could occur due to an overreliance on pediatric robotics. To overcome this challenge, we seek to consider the broad range of ethical issues related to the use of robots in pediatric healthcare. This chapter provides an overview of the current state of the art in pediatric robotics, describes relevant ethical issues, and examines the role that overtrust plays in these scenarios. We conclude with suggested strategies to mitigate the relevant risks and describe a framework for the future deployment of robots in the pediatric domain.

The chapter points out some dynamics that can blind people to the good aspects of reality and lead them to see life as “nastier” than it really is. Alongside previously discussed dynamics (such as ...
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The chapter points out some dynamics that can blind people to the good aspects of reality and lead them to see life as “nastier” than it really is. Alongside previously discussed dynamics (such as perfectionism), the chapter discusses the view that people’s behavior in a crisis is an indication of their true nature; the tendency to judge oneself excessively harshly and to refrain from forgiving oneself; the hostility to pride; and the treatment of the critical attitude toward oneself and the world as a status symbol. The chapter also argues that recognizing the good around and within us need not lead to complacency or diminish people’s motivation to improve things.Less

Why We Are Blind to Goodness

Iddo Landau

Published in print: 2017-09-28

The chapter points out some dynamics that can blind people to the good aspects of reality and lead them to see life as “nastier” than it really is. Alongside previously discussed dynamics (such as perfectionism), the chapter discusses the view that people’s behavior in a crisis is an indication of their true nature; the tendency to judge oneself excessively harshly and to refrain from forgiving oneself; the hostility to pride; and the treatment of the critical attitude toward oneself and the world as a status symbol. The chapter also argues that recognizing the good around and within us need not lead to complacency or diminish people’s motivation to improve things.